This invention is concerned with the production of tertiary butylamine (TBA), methyl or sodium formate and sodium sulfate in a single overall production scheme.
Tertiary butylamine has been made for more than 20 years by initially forming N-tertiary butyl formamide from HCN and isobutylene in the presence of sulfuric acid as first disclosed by Ritter, U.S. Pat. No. 2,573,673, followed by the alkaline hydrolysis of the formamide to form the TBA. After recovery of TBA, there remains a complex residual mixture which contains sodium formate, sodium hydroxide sodium sulfate (solid and aqueous) and complex organic impurities of unknown structure.
This residual mixture has always been a waste material. Its disposal has become increasingly expensive as ever more stringent regulations for the protection of the environment have been promulgated by governmental authorities following the legislation passed by State legislatures and Congress. One commercial manufacturer is no longer in a position to make TBA because EPA regulations are violated by any disposal method which is economically tolerable. Recent price increases have been primarily the result of increased effluent disposal cost rather than increased raw material or increased processing cost.
The present invention not only avoids the expenditures resulting from such effluent disposal but actually permits coproduction of sodium or methyl formate and sodium sulfate along with the TBA.